Olof Palme

Sven Olof Joachim Palme January 1927 February 1986 was a Swedish Social Democratic politician, statesman and prime minister. A longtime protg of Prime Minister Tage Erlander, Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 until his assassination in 1986, and was a twoterm Prime Minister of Sweden, heading a Privy Council Government from 1969 to 1976 and a cabinet government from 1982 until his death. Electoral defeats in 1976 and 1979 marked the end of Social Democratic hegemony in Swedish politics, which had seenyears of unbroken rule by the party. While leader of the opposition, he parted domestic and international interests and served as special mediator of the United Nations in the IranIraq War, but returned to power as Prime Minister after electoral victories in 1982 and 1985.

Palme was born into an upper middle class, conservative Lutheran family in stermalm, Stockholm, Sweden. His father, a businessman, was of Dutch ancestry, and his mother, Elisabeth von Knieriem, was of a Baltic German tradesmen descent. Her great grandfather had been ennobled by the Czar in 1814. She had arrived in Sweden as a refugee in 1915. Greatgrandfather Alexander von Knieriem was an attorney general of the Senate of Russian Empire, senator and member of the State Council of Imperial Russia. Palmes father died when he was six years old. Despite his background, his political orientation came to be influenced by Social Democratic attitudes. His travels in the Third World, as well as the United States, where he saw deep economic inequality and racial segregation, helped to develop these views.

Source: Wikipedia